L I F E

1. So we bought this magazine and decided to make the rounds and try out the 25 great meals under $25 in Portland. First stop was Pizza Fino. It was in a part of Portland that I didn't even know existed.

Here, I learned that Irene can't keep her eyes open in a picture. This was like take 5 and the closest we got.

This antipasti dish was scrumptious!

The pizza was good, but I was so full from the bread and antipasti, I wasn't able to fully enjoy it.

This spaghetti with vegi-meatballs was a surprising find. What was not surprising was the fact that the vegi-meatballs were not that good.


Garlic knots, ala Tomatina's. The only difference, they weren't as tasty as Tomatina's. Still, not that bad.


B is for boring. Brent ordered a cheeseburger. I was so stuffed, I wasn't even able to sample. It did look pretty good though. Overall, I'd say 3.5/5 stars. I'd go again.

2. One of the dentists that I work with has a daughter who has cystic fibrosis. So, every year he invites us to the annual Cystic Fibrosis Foundation ball. This year the theme was "Unmask the Cure." It was a masquerade ball. Since Esther and I didn't happen to have any masks just laying around, we had to get our masks at the ball. The ladies in the front insisted that I get the one with the huge nose. Now I know how my friend Joel feels. Ben too. =)



3. It's been a long strange week. This week, I learned once again that life is fragile. I was also reminded that life is beautiful and it is to be cherished and treasured. Every moment, in reality is a gift and the best gift you can receive or give is a moment spent with someone you love. Thanks Boaz for the memories. You made life beautiful for so many people and you were truly loved. Because of Boaz, I was able to reunite with many long lost members of the Rohnert Park family. As I look back on those years, they were some of the happiest and most precious years of my life. And because, as Christians, we have the hope of resurrection, we can celebrate our friend's life even as we cry. Even as we mourned the loss of our brother, we shared so many laughs as we looked back on the fantastic times and memories we shared. Also, I was blessed to see how powerful a community of love and support we can find in the body of Christ. Hope springs eternal.

The men of RP, revisted 10 years later.

The lovely ladies.

4. It's the day before Thanksgiving. My side of the family will be joining us this weekend. My parents are arriving tonight, my brothers, S-I-L, and cousin tomorrow morning as well as my grandfather and aunt. It's our first time hosting Thanksgiving. Which for me, doesn't mean much. For Esther, on the other hand, it means a lot. She's been a busy little bee preparing the menu, table settings, etc. Truth is, I think it's a whole lotta work for nothing. Thanksgiving food doesn't do it for me. I would rather have rice and kalbi any day. Oh well. Tradition dictates that we eat turkey.


5. Happy Thanksgiving to all our family and friends. May God bless you and keep you.

Golf stuff...

My friend G-funk turned 30. Most 30 year old men ditch the nicknames of their childhood like G-funk and start going by real names, like Gerald, but that's neither here nor there. We went down to San Diego for his birthday. We arrived late Thursday night and woke up at the butt crack of dawn to get the Torrey Pines at butt crack o' thirty to get in line. The way it works is, first come first serve. Legend has it that on weekends, people sleep there in the parking lot. You see that railing on the left? You just have to leave something there to reserve your spot. It's honor system. Well, we were about the 4th group in line. But when we got up to pay, one group of old men had mysteriously appeared and cut in front of us. The old me would have caused a ruckus, but the new me, I let it go. I thought I would have some good golf karma coming my way. So much for golfers and their honor. And that good golf karma? You know what they say about Karma.

The first group teeing off.

Two happy golfers about take on the Tiger experience.

If memory serves me correctly, this one went right on me.

The views are awesome. This course is located on a cliff overlooking the ocean. Almost every single hole is ocean-view. Like I said before, I love looking at the ocean, I just don't like going in it. Perfect day. Golfing while looking at the ocean.

If I recall, this one didn't turn out so great either. But a great action shot nonetheless.
Torrey Pines is on the list of courses you have to play if you're a golfer. Next up, Monterrey!

CHURCH GOLF TOURNEY

Sue, being the thoughtful person that she is, bought me this belt and even put some fake diamonds on it. Actually, I believe it was Eric's idea. I'm not sure if he was making fun of me or being thoughtful, but either way, I appreciate it. After seeing Anthony Kim's AK belt, Eric thought I should have a D belt. Unfortunately, I played like a D in this tournament. D could stand for many things, none good. The diamonds all fell off, but the belt will remain in my rotation of golf belts. And as for the hair... I'm not sure why I took my hat off for the picture, but on the morning of an important golf tournament, there are things more important than taking showers.

Kev and I bet steak dinner against Eric and Dr. Kwak. They were generous enough to play us even money. Nice setup Kev.

And a mighty wind up... We lost by 25 strokes. My bad. Like I said, I played like a Dummy, a Dork, a D-bag, a Dog, a Derriere. Any person or thing that is negative and would suck at golf and starts with the letter D. That cost us dearly cuz the winners picked El Gaucho for the dinner. Kev and I shall forever remember that place as EL OUCHO. Good thing those guys don't drink wine. Water's free.

Eric won a trophy that should have been called, "I cheated when I submitted my handicap cuz there's no way you can shoot 10 under your handicap," but they just called it 3rd place.

Lloyd, the big man of the day with the lowest total score. You sexy Canadian beast. Ahaha. Look at James in the background. Doesn't look the least bit happy for his dear B-I-L. Next year James. We'll get em next year.

Catching up...

1. Last year, my wife begged me to go to "Scream at the Beach." It's a haunted house event that they hold in Portland every year. They have this semi abandoned mall and they use each store as a different haunted house and each haunted house has a different theme. Me, being the jerk that I am, simply put it off until the event closed and we ended up not being able to go. I did, however, promise that we would go this year. So guess who happens to have a fantastic memory? My wife. So this year, we went. We even talked some of our friends into going. There were lines out the door and this place was packed (I hate crowded places). So for each house you go into, you have to wait in a line. We waited about 1 1/2 hours for the first one. B-O-R-I-N-G. We waited about another hour for the second one, which was supposedly the scariest one. This one was even worse. It was so dark in there, we got lost like 3 times and had "scary" people whispering to us, "wrong way." I thought they were trying to scare us into thinking we were lost. Nope. So after the second one, we left. 3 hours of my life wasted. But at least I kept my promise.

This picture was taken about 30 minutes into the first line. That's why people are actually smiling.

The most entertaining moment of the night. Poor kid. At what point do you just give up and say, "let's shave it?" (Even if it is a girl.)

My wife read this book....

And I suffered the consequences... Carrot juice is actually not that bad when it doesn't have celery, spinach, beets, and vomit. Thanks for the memories mom.

No pictures again! =)

1. So, Obama won. I'm cautiously optimistic. IF what he says is really true, then it could be good. Truth is, that man has bitten off quite and bit and I hope he can chew it. He's promised so much. Not just policies and laws. He sold something much stronger and harder to deliver on than that. Change and hope. Good luck President Obama. Enough of politics though. I've seen political posts go bad quickly on blogs. =)

2. This last weekend, Esther was out of town for a wedding. So what's a temporarily single man to do? Well, I know what my answer was. Golf. Lot's and lot's of golf. Unfortunately, the forecast called for rain. Lot's and lot's of rain. My dedication wavered not. I showed up wearing my rain pants, rain jacket, rain hat, with umbrella in tow. As soon as I got to the course the sun came out and the sky cleared up and it was amazing! I tried something new this time. I took my ipod and listened to music while I played golf. For people who haven't tried this before, I highly recommend it! Picture this, music playing in my ears, nobody else out there, beautiful blue skies with autumn colors all around me. I was in my own world. To top it off, I had 5 birdies and shot a 75. I tell you, it was a near spiritual experience. I was out there on the golf course singing at the top of my lungs. Thank god nobody else was out there to hear me. I tried it again on Sunday. This time, it rained a little bit and my ipod batteries died on hole 28/36 and my scores were higher. Oh well. Still an amazing time. And now I know that my rain gear works really well!

3. Esther got her braces off today... for the third (and hopeflly the final) time! She's been wearing braces on and off for almost a decade. Poor girl has had enough food stuck in her braces to feed a small nation and today she flossed comfortably like a normal person. Congrats to her.

4. As mentioned in the previous entry, the rains have started. I'm quite thankful that we made it all the way to November without the rains coming. Now that the rains are starting up, we'll be in the deluge for about 3-4 months. Well, when life gives you lemons, make lemonade right? I actually don't mind the rain. I recently got the urge to take a weekend trip to the coast and sit in front of the fireplace while watching the rain come down on the ocean. So I looked on VRBO and found an amazing house and gathered some friends and we'll be going next weekend! This might be a surprise to some, but I actually really love the ocean. I love looking at the ocean. I don't like being in the ocean and I don't like sweating and getting sand sticking all over me. So, it turns out, this is the perfect time for me to go to the beach! I may have pictures of this trip, thus ending our pictureless post streak. Esther just got back from a wedding in California and spent the weekend with her mom in LA and guess how many pictures she took? ZERO. This is why we never have any pictures.